South Korea confirmed Saturday another 813 cases of the new coronavirus, taking the country's total number of infections to 3,150.

The Health and Welfare Ministry said in a statement that 657 of the new cases were in the city of Daegu, the epicenter of the nation's outbreak of COVID-19.

The total number of cases in Daegu, where a mass outbreak is linked to a secretive religious group, now exceeds 2,200.

In the capital Seoul there are now 77 cases while the second-largest city of Busan has 80, with both showing increases. The country's death toll stands at 17.

Government quarantine officials at a press conference urged people to refrain from going out much as possible over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry on Saturday issued a level-one travel alert, the lowest on a four-tier response system, for all of Japan, urging its citizens to exercise caution.

The previous day, the Japanese Foreign Ministry issued a "Level 1" risk information level, the lowest of four levels, for the whole of South Korea.


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